I just wanted to report that renting a car in Taiwan was an excellent experience and I would recommend it to anyone with reasonable driving experience (don't forget to get your IDP -- it's an absurd relic, but it is required inTaiwan). All the people telling you not to drive in Taiwan are silly. Sure, it wouldn't be great (or necessary) to drive in Taipei, but I could have even driven there if I needed to -- and maybe I should have returned the car there instead of taking an Uber in from the airport. Taiwan has lots of highways, and they might be easier to drive than in America (fewer crazies on the road). Some of the smaller mountain roads are harder, but not really hard. You do have to get used to watching the scooters in town, but even that's not a big problem. In Tainan, I was a little concerned about the scooters in downtown, but they pretty much know to not make stupid moves around cars. In the countryside, it would be crazy NOT to rent a car. Like getting to Sun Moon Lake was easy, get to Fenquhi and Alishan was essential, and we threw in a very worthwhile stop in Lukang between Tainan and Taipei. Just drive -- it will make your Taiwan trip SO much better and easier!